Thursday, February 24, 2011

Alrighty, it's that time again! Molly has another MRI tomorrow morning at the Children's Hospital. (For those of you who don't know, Molly had a life threatening brain tumor and had a successful surgery last April . Now she has to have MRI's every 3 months. If you want to read her story go HERE.)

So we are getting anxious for tomorrow, and praying for strength and that everything goes well. We won't get to meet with the doctor to find out how it went until next Tuesday, so I am worried this is going to be a very long weekend.

But today Molly was great! She was very excited to give her friend a birthday card she made ALL by herself, she wouldn't even let me help write on it. Then she made her bed ALL by herself, this is a new trend I am liking. :) And she even got to paint artwork for the basement toy room!

I picked a 2 pack of canvas up at Hobby Lobby a few months back for Molly to paint for the toy room. They have 2 packs for just under $6, and if you print off a coupon even cheaper! Molly was thrilled to paint these to hang up.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

This past weekend was Randal's 30th birthday!!! So Friday night we had a Mario party, Randal has always been a huge Nintendo and Mario fan, so it was a ton of fun!

After some borrowing from family, we were able to set up 4 TV's with video games to play. We had 2 Wii's set up and our old Game Cube and Super Nintendo. It was so fun to have it so everyone could play.

Game Cube and Super Nintendo stations!

Our friends Brad and Autumn brought this fun Mario puzzle. Here is the group of us that put it together, haha! Who knew puzzles were so fun!

I printed these question mark blocks on cardstock and laminated them to use as coasters.

Super easy Mario star cupcakes. I just used store frosting and cut fondant stars for the tops, then just used my food writer pens to draw on the eyes.

And warp tubes filled with fireballs. I just spray painted two sections of PVC pipe green to look like the tubes in Mario.

And no Mario party would be complete without chocolate Mario and Luigi mustaches for everyone!!!

And a LOT of Wii karaoke! My ears will never be the same!

This party was SO much fun! Randal had a great time, and I think all his Nintendo loving friends did too.

The girls slept over at my parents, but before they left Molly had to tryout the Super Nintendo!

And Nora had to model these fun Goomba hats, my mother-in-law knitted for the party! I think we need a family picture wearing these! I saw the idea for these here.

I saw the fun ideas for mustaches and warp pipes from this amazing party at Grey Grey Designs.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

For Nora's 1st Birthday party we had a Very Hungry Caterpillar theme. Molly loves "reading" this book to Nora, so we thought this would be a great party idea.

We found this fun Very Hungry Caterpillar tablecloth at Target, and little favor bags. I just put crayons, a coloring page I printed from online, a few suckers, stickers and a green bead necklace inside each bag for the girls and there cousins.

One of my favorite details was the water bottle labels. I don't know why, but I love water bottle labels, and they are SO easy to make. I just printed a picture I liked, cut them, and used clear packaging tape to put them on the bottles. I also had pop and green punch.

Here is the cake I made, I think adding the gumballs around the edge was so fun, and goes with the dot theme in the book. I saw the idea for this over at Cake Walk.

Tons of yummy food, not super theme oriented, but easy and cute on Hungry Caterpillar plates.

And we couldn't forget the apples, oranges, pears, plums and strawberries, like the caterpillar eats through in the book!

Another favorite was the outfits I made for the girls. I found Very Hungry Caterpillar fabric at fabrics.com and used a coupon to get it quite a few months back. SO fun! Then I used the Kwik Sew pattern 3775 to make it yesterday. I love that this pattern goes from size 12 month to about 4t, so it works for both my girls.

Here is a back shot of the dress. Instead of using buttons like the pattern called for I used snaps, since I am afraid of making button holes, ;) and snaps are so easy with little ones.

And I couldn't forget Molly, so I made her up this easy skirt, and then just printed a caterpillar on heat transfer paper and ironed it onto one of her white long sleeve T-shirts.

Nora was spoiled by her family and friends who came to the party! We are so happy they could celebrate our sweet 1 year old with us!

Friday, February 11, 2011

I am obsessed with putting vinyl words on reusable bags! I found these cute cloth Valentine's bags for $1, with a painted heart on the front. So I just cut the names of Molly's teachers out of white vinyl, and put them on the front! (Just like these Christmas ones) SO easy! Then I just put a bag of candy in them, for a fun Valentine's gift.

Monday, February 7, 2011

Everybody loves Peanut Butter Blossoms, so when I saw this great idea to make a Valentine's version from eighteen25, they were immediately added to the to do list. I think they turned out adorable, and taste great! We used the Reese's Peanut Butter hearts for the tops. This batch we made to deliver to someone else, but I'm thinking tomorrow we will have to make another to have around the house. YUM!

Friday, February 4, 2011

I've been seeing Subway Art decor everywhere and really like it. But it is so hard for me to be random, and I never feel happy with all of the random words. So, when I saw this AWESOME family rules subway art at Sassy Sanctuary, I was so excited! I love everything about it! Then I was even more excited that she has 6 different styles of them all made up with different backgrounds for you to download for free! I know, YEAH! I just saved it to the USB drive and headed to Office Max, they printed it on 12x12 cardstock for me for $1.49. Then, I found this 12x12 black frame for $4.99 at Meijers. Love it!!!

Thursday, February 3, 2011

I saw this adorable idea for Valentine's 2 years ago over at 24-7-365 and LOVED it. So, I bookmarked it and saved it until Molly was old enough to pass out Valentine's. When she brought the letter home from preschool saying they were exchanging "mail" for Valentine's we got right to work!

Molly chose to wear pink (big surprise, heehee), and the pink suckers. I added the words in picasa, and then just had them printed off on cardstock for pretty cheap at office max, 3 to a page. I used an exacto knife to cut the slits and then taped the sucker on the back. SO FUN! Molly loves them and can't wait to pass them out to her friends!

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

While Randal was busy digging us out from the snow, the girls and I stayed in and enjoyed a pajama day! We took full advantage of not having to go anywhere, Nora's doctors appointment was even rescheduled! So, we put dinner in the crock-pot so I wouldn't have to stop and cook and got busy having a day of play! We built forts, danced, played barbies, crafted, built towers, baked muffins, and so much more. Here are a few of the girls highlights...

Molly worked really hard decorating her kazoo. We found an easy tutorial on how to make kazoos at UCreate With Kids.

Then we had a ton of fun playing with them the rest of the day!

Another big hit of the day was playing with snow in the sink. After we came in from playing outside, Molly really wanted to go back out. So instead, I compromised and filled the sink with snow to play in. She thought it was the coolest thing ever, and spent almost an hour "cooking" with the snow!

I just threw a bunch of random cups, bowls, scoops and kitchen utensils in the snow, and let her get busy playing!

Nora's favorite part of the day was crawling over all the pillow mountains while we were building forts. She had more fun hiding in them, and climbing up and down, over and around!

After 3 hours of snowblowing this morning, we still have this left at the bottom of the driveway! I'm thinking we are staying home today...

Molly was begging to go play outside all morning, so once there was a little bit of a path in the driveway, I took the girls out to get some pictures so they can remember how deep the snow was. Molly thought it was so cool that the snow went up to her eyes, lol!

Kim

I am a happily married, stay-at-home Christian mom. Dealing daily with diapers, dishes, dieting, and just trying to make the most out of every day!

Randal

Randal is the best husband and father we could ask for. He loves his family of girls, and has the best sense of humor. He works hard and supports us in everything we do as a family.

Molly

Molly is our energetic 4 year old. She is an amazing little girl. In April 2010 we found out that she had a life threatening, lime size brain tumor. She was in the hospital for awhile and had surgery to remove it. Today she is doing amazing, and we are so grateful for her miracle! Her favorite things to do are play dress up and swim. To read more of Molly's brain tumor story, click on her picture.

Nora

Nora is our 2 year old daughter. She is such a sweetie, and super indepentent. She is always keeping us on our toes!